Den Song „Serpentine Prison“ schrieb Berninger im Dezember 2018, etwa eine Woche nach dem Aufnahmen zu The Nationals „I Am Easy To Find“. Er erzählt darüber: „For a long time, I had been writing songs for movies and musicals and other projects where I needed to get inside someone else’s head and convey another person’s feelings. I liked doing that, but I was ready to dig back into my own garbage and this was the first thing that came out.“